this is why discourse needs to start with listening and learning, why online discourse is often so terrible, and why we see people falling prey to terf pipelines.
if you see things you instinctively disagree with, it’s SO important to understand why you disagree.
because when you explore the why, you will sometimes find that in your efforts to find the words to describe your discomfort, that you were right to disagree because someone who is more educated on the subject matter has articulated the why in a way that helps you understand that discomfort.
but you will also sometimes find that someone who is more educated on the subject can explain why your disagreement is actually an internalized bias that you had a blind spot to and weren’t aware of it until it was laid out for you in a certain way.
by nature of the internet, you will see a lot of things you both agree with and disagree with. and it’s incredibly easy to create an unintentional echo chamber where you only see things that support what you already know and believe. when something that is foreign to your current understanding of the world enters your perception, it is a shock to see. and that shock can often lead to an instinctive response of defending what you already know. this is how we get bad faith discourse.
not enough people are willing to examine their discomfort and create potential learning opportunities for themselves because they are too comfortable in their understanding of the world. but it is crucial to occasionally step outside of your comfort zone in order to continue to grow as a person.
if you see something by you don’t understand it is worth taking the effort to dig into it and take the time to understand why. do research, ask someone you trust. actively seek education constantly. we all need to constantly be learning in order to better ourselves because that’s the only way that we can make the world a better place for all of us.
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